karaoke

[manutdstott]

The first time I heard the word karaoke was on Steve Wright in the afternoon on Radio One in about 1989. They had a slot on the show where they would sing there favourite song, it wasn't a nice sound. If I am not mistaken I think at the time, they said Karaoke was a craze in Japan. Originally for people suffering from stress, there doctors told these Japanese people to sing there favourite songs, to overcome there stress, and the rest is history. Is this true can anyone confirm this.

[Pickle]

The story goes that one night in a bar in Kobe City, Japan, the regular perfomer couldn't play so he recorded tapes and asked the audience to sing. It went down so well it became a regular thing and caught on around the country. I would imagine that some doctors advised their patients to try out this new pastime to relieve stress.

[sft42]

UNable to really confirm this as the true answer has been lost in the mists of time but this website backs up Pickle's theory.

http://www.karaokescene.com/history/

[tracymort]

my dad used to come home from work with stories of people in london queueing around corners to get into pubs to sing on karaoke. i also remember him bringing home the 1st mobile i'd ever seen!! in a suitcase. we kept ringing ourselves!